Computer simulations, including video games, that feature a virtual environment are increasingly popular. Such video games typically feature a computer-generated landscape that may represent an actual or imaginary location in a past, present, or future time. Video game players, or users, can create computer-generated characters, referred to as avatars, and control the avatars on the landscape through client software that runs on a processing device. An avatar can typically roam the landscape and interact with other users' avatars and with other virtual objects. Virtual environments are frequently implemented in a distributed computing environment where server software running on certain hosts execute certain aspects of the video game, and client software executing on user devices, such as personal computers, execute other aspects of the video game.
One problem that can arise in a virtual environment is choppy, or time delayed, movement of avatars or other virtual objects in the virtual environment. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as lag. Lag can occur for any of a variety of different reasons, including when a processing device associated with the virtual environment does not have sufficient processing capability to keep up with the virtual activity occurring in the area, or region, of the virtual environment for which the processing device is responsible. Lag is disruptive in a video game, and can even cause users to terminate their participation in the game.
Many virtual objects gathering in the same area of the virtual environment can lead to lag if the processing device responsible for the area cannot keep up with the virtual environment activity, such as messaging, that is generated from interactions among many virtual objects. Reducing the number of virtual objects in the area and ensuring that other virtual objects do not enter the area can help reduce the virtual environment activity and reduce the messaging activity causing the lag. However, forcing virtual objects to leave or otherwise avoid congested areas can undermine the perception that a user controls their destiny in the virtual environment, and can reduce the enjoyment of participating in the virtual environment game. Consequently, there is a need for a system and method to influence the movement of virtual objects away from congested virtual areas in a virtual environment in a manner that is not disruptive to a user or that does not otherwise detract from the virtual environment experience.